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My lightly sweet gluten free zucchini bread recipe is made with tons of shredded zucchini and oil instead of butter for the most tender crumb that stays fresh for days, even when chilled.
The secret to bread that comes out with the right texture every time is squeezing the extra moisture out of shredded zucchini, then measuring the right amount. No more spongy bread because your vegetables were too big!
“We’ve made more loaves of this zucchini bread than I can count. Friends and family delight in the rich, moist treat. So yummy!”
Why this recipe works
This bread is full of flavor, never mushy, and browns beautifully in the oven.
The secret is in the preparation. Use whatever zucchini or squash you have, since it will always have the same amount of moisture as mine after you get rid of the excess liquid.
Plus, we puree some of the zucchini with oil and eggs. That traps enough moisture in an emulsion to create a tender crumb that still has tons of flavor.
Recipe ingredients
- Gluten free flour blend – Any high quality gluten free flour blend with finely ground rice flour should work here. Be sure to add xanthan gum if your blend doesn't contain it. My favorite blends are Better Batter's original all purpose blend and Nicole's Best with added xanthan gum. If you're using Bob's Red Mill, even though it already has gum, it doesn't have enough so try adding an extra 1/4 teaspoon.
- Salt – balances out and complements all the other ingredients
- Baking powder – adds rise for a light crumb
- Baking soda – helps browning in the oven
- Cinnamon – adds a lovely, warm spicy but subtle taste to your bread; optional
- Chocolate chips – adds rich chocolate flavor to every bite, plus some more sweetness
- Sugars – add sweetness, tenderness, and depth of flavor from the molasses in the brown sugar
- Oil – We use a neutral oil (options include canola, vegetable, grapeseed, peanut, safflower, peanut, or avocado oil) to blend with some of the zucchini to create an emulsion that adds tons of moisture and tenderizes the bread
- Zucchini – after being squeezed of excess water, it adds the right amount of moisture so the bread stays tender but bakes fully
- Eggs – add structure and bind the bread together and help it hold its shape as it cools
- Vanilla – adds depth of flavor
Ingredient substitutions
Dairy free
Since the bread made with oil instead of butter, it's naturally dairy free. If you're dairy free, though, make sure your chocolate chips are, too.
Egg free
Try two “chia eggs” (2 tablespoons ground white chia seeds + 2 to 3 tablespoons lukewarm water, mixed and allowed to gel). A “flax egg” might also work, but tends to add unwelcome flavor.
Step by step instructions
This is a simple recipe that is mixed together beginning with dry ingredients, then adding wet ingredients. But the wet ingredients are prepared a bit differently. We'll walk through the steps here, but please scroll down to the recipe card for exact ingredient amounts:
Prepare the zucchini
Grate the zucchini on a standard size box grater or in a food processor fitted with the shredder blade. Wrap it in a tea towel or paper towels and wring out as much moisture as possible. This is how we standardize the amount of liquid in your zucchini
Combine dry ingredients
Whisk all the dry ingredients (gluten free flour blend including xanthan gum, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, if using, and sugars) in a large mixing bowl so there are no unwanted pockets of leavening.
Coat the chips
Toss the chocolate chips in a bit of the dry ingredients and set them aside to add later. This helps keep the chips from sinking to the bottom of the bread during baking.
Add half the zucchini
Mix half of the shredded and drained zucchini into the dry ingredients. This keeps the zucchini from making the bread too green overall, adds some green flecks to the baked bread, and allows the zucchini to release some moisture during baking to keep the bread moist.
Blend the wet ingredients
Blend the rest of the zucchini with the eggs, oil, and vanilla to create an emulsion. This ensures full distribution throughout the bread of the fat in the egg yolks and oil for a moist, even crumb.
Add wet to dry
Pour the pureed wet ingredients into the bowl of combined dry ingredients. This makes it easy to create a uniform mixture. Don't worry about overmixing the batter here, though, since there's no gluten to overwork which could result in a tough texture.
Finish the batter
Mix the wet and dry ingredients until you have a smooth, uniform batter. It will be very soft and thickly pourable, but shouldn't be runny. Add in most of the chocolate chips with the reserved dry ingredients, then mix until they're evenly distributed throughout the batter. The few reserved chips will go on top for a pretty presentation.
Transfer the raw batter
Scrape the final batter into a greased loaf pan that you've lined with parchment, which will help the bread bake evenly and make it easy to lift it out of the pan. Since the batter is soft, it's easy to spread into a smooth layer for even baking.
Top with chips
Scatter the remaining chips across the top of the loaf. They'll hold their shape best after baking and ensure that every bite has some chocolate.
Bake and cool
Bake at 325°F until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out mostly clean. Allow it to cool briefly in the pan so the bread is stable enough to move without cracking. Lift the bread carefully by the overhung parchment paper to transfer it to a wire rack to cool completely.
Expert tips
Prep zucchini properly
You can drain the grated zucchini by placing it in in the center of a tea towel (just a kitchen towel with a flat weave that doesn't shed) or an old clean t-shirt, and squeezing it until no more liquid drains.
A strong mesh bag called a nut milk bag also works great. This is my favorite nut milk bag because it's strong and durable.
Measure ingredients accurately
Measure your dry ingredients with a simple digital kitchen scale whenever possible, and ignore the volume measurements. And be sure to measure the shredded zucchini after you've drained it, not before.
Storage instructions
Short term
Wrap the bread (or slices) plastic wrap and a zip-top bag and the bread should last about 3 days on the counter.
Longer term
Wrap leftovers tightly in freezer safe wrap and store in the freezer for about 3 months. Defrost at room temperature.
To refresh
Sprinkle lightly with lukewarm water and place in a 300°F toaster oven for about 5 minutes.
Prep ahead
Grate and drain fresh zucchini, and freeze it to use another time. Just let it defrost at room temperature, gently squeeze out any remaining moisture you didn't remove the first time, and then proceed with the recipe as written.
Gluten Free Zucchini Bread Recipe
Ingredients
- 1 ½ cups (210 g) all purpose gluten free flour blend, (See Recipe Notes)
- ½ teaspoon xanthan gum, omit if your blend already contains it
- ½ teaspoon kosher salt
- ½ teaspoon baking soda
- ½ teaspoon baking powder
- 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon, (optional)
- ⅔ cup (4 ounces) semi-sweet chocolate chips, (dairy free, if necessary)(can omit or replace with chopped nuts)
- ½ cup (100 g) granulated sugar
- ½ cup (109 g) packed light brown sugar
- 2 ⅛ cups (215 g) drained grated zucchini, (weight is zucchini as drained of liquid; See Recipe Notes)
- 2 (100 g (weighed out of shell)) eggs, at room temperature
- ¼ cup (56 g) neutral oil, (like grapeseed, canola or vegetable oil)
- 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
Instructions
- Preheat your oven to 325°F. Grease a standard 9-inch x 5-inch loaf pan and set it aside.
- In a large bowl, place flour, xanthan gum, salt, baking soda, baking powder and optional cinnamon, and whisk to combine well.
- Place the chocolate chips in a small bowl, add about 1 teaspoon of the dry ingredients to the chips and toss to combine. Set the chips aside.
- To the flour mixture, add the granulated sugar and light brown sugar, and whisk to combine (working out any lumps in the brown sugar).
- Add 1 1/4 cups (125 g) of the grated zucchini to the dry ingredients, and mix gently to combine. Set aside the dry ingredients.
- Place the remaining 7/8 cup (88 g) of grated zucchini, the eggs, oil and vanilla in a blender, and pulse until well-blended and beginning to emulsify.
- Create a well in the center of the bowl of dry ingredients, and add the wet ingredient mixture. The batter will be very wet.
- Add about 1/2 cup of the chocolate chips and reserved dry ingredients to the batter and mix until the chips are evenly distributed throughout the batter.
- Scrape the batter into the prepared loaf pan, and smooth the top with a wet spatula. Scatter the remaining chocolate chips on top and press down lightly to adhere.
- Place the loaf pan in the center of the preheated oven.
- Bake, rotating once, until the top is golden brown and a toothpick inserted in the center of each loaf comes out with a few moist crumbs attached (about 50 minutes).
- Remove from the oven and allow to cool for at least 30 minutes in the loaf pan before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely before slicing and serving.
Video
Notes
My favorite gluten free flour blends are Better Batter's original blend gluten free flour and Nicole's Best multipurpose blend. Bob's Red Mill 1-to-1 Gluten Free Baking Flour should work if you add 1/4 teaspoon xanthan gum. Cup4Cup changed its formula and doesn't seem to work as well as it has in the past, so I don't recommend it. To make your own blend using one of my “mock” recipes, please see the all purpose gluten free flour blends page.
Grate at least one large or two smaller zucchini. Placing it in in the center of a tea towel (just a kitchen towel with a flat weave that doesn't shed), wrap the cloth tightly, and squeeze until there's almost no liquid left. The shredded and drained zucchini will clump and not feel wet, only damp, to the touch. Now, measure it on your digital kitchen scale. Grate and drain more zucchini as necessary to reach the proper amount of zucchini for this recipe. If you have any left over, freeze it in a freezer-safe bag or other container and defrost as needed.
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
FAQs
No! The taste of zucchini does not come through at all, even though you can see the green flecks of the vegetable that wasn't pureed.
Yes. Feel free to add walnuts, raisins, shredded coconut, and other dry mix-ins in place of the chocolate chips, by weight.
You can use frozen grated zucchini—but only if you had removed most of its moisture before freezing it. Otherwise, frozen zucchini with all its moisture would become mushy as it defrosted.
I don't like this recipe as muffins, instead of a quick bread. Instead, use this recipe for gluten free zucchini muffins instead.
If your bread sank in the middle as it cooled, it wasn't baked all the way through. If your oven runs hot, the outside will bake too quickly and the inside will remain raw. I always recommend baking with a standalone oven thermometer that you replace often. In addition, if you didn't wring enough moisture out of your zucchini, the extra moisture won't be able to bake all the way out, leaving you with a sunken middle and gummy texture.
Hello Nicole!! Great recipe as always! The texture was perfect. It also handled my oven not keeping it’s temperature well like a champ, just took a little longer.
I used to try a lot of gluten free recipes and I tried a lot of quick bread recipes in particular, but now I just check your page first :D my family and friends know “Gluten free on a shoestring”
I’m someone who prefers less sweet breads, I was wondering how to go about reducing the sugar? I imagine that the sugar is needed for the texture of the bread, so it might not work to halve the sugar? I was thinking about using less sweet sweeteners like coconut sugar or applesauce(nixed for wetness)
Do you think it’s possible?
Hi, Aurora, thank you so much for the kind words and your trust in my recipes! As you guessed, you really can’t reduce the sugar or make this into a less-sweet bread without sacrificing texture. Sugar locks in moisture for tenderness, adds bulk, as well as adds sweetness. I used to have a gluten free savory zucchini bread recipe on the site, which you might like. I had to take down the post, but here’s the printable recipe itself, if you’re interested. Make a note of it, since it’s not searchable!
Hi Nicole,
Thanks for the great recipe. Just tried it this afternoon, following it as directed except substituted 1/2 the chocolate chips for chocolate chunks and chopped pecans. YUM! It may not last the night :)
Susan L.
That sounds delicious, Susan. Those are perfect mix-in swaps. Anything chunky that doesn’t add moisture can always be substituted for chocolate chips in baking. Well done, and thanks for sharing!
Do you still have the double chocolate zucchini recipe? It was absolutely amazing and I saved the link, but it brings me to this one now. Even my non gluten-free friends and family raved about it when I made the double chocolate version, and I have lost my printed copy.
Hi, Amanda, here’s a link to the printable recipe, please make a note of it. I had to remove the post from the blog because it didn’t get enough search traffic and was hurting ranking for this version. It’s rough out there in search and hard to make a living these days! Thanks for understanding.
This used to be the link for the iced lemon zucchini bread. It was our favorite summer treat, light and the texture is perfect! I went to make it today and the link is gone. GF on a shoestring has been my go to for years for the best recipes for my family.
Is there any way we could get access to that recipe again?
Hi, Tina, thank you for the kind words. Here’s a printable version of the recipe you’re looking for. It simply wasn’t performing well enough on Google for me to keep the post live on the site. It’s rough out there these days making a living from search results. Thanks for understanding!
I can’t thank you enough for this. Honestly it’s a huge family favorite. I’ve been following your recipes for years, you’ve improved all our family meals!
You’re very welcome, it’s my pleasure. And thank you so much for telling me that, Tina. It’s hugely gratifying for me as this is indeed my life’s work! ❤️
This recipe is SO good! I used the Cup4Cup blend, erythritol in place of the sugar, and monk fruit brown sugar. It turned out SO delicious and SO moist! Thank you! My pre diabetic husband loves it!
That’s amazing, Jannah, so glad to know it worked even with those substitutions! That will be very helpful to others to know. Thank you for sharing that!
I never write reviews and I’m also not a very good baker even though I’ve done a lot of trying! But I was gifted a fresh zucchini too big to eat and searched for a GF recipe to make zucchini bread. I decided to follow your recipe exactly and even pulled out my kitchen scale. This zucchini bread was literally perfect! It also baked in exactly the amount of time you said it would – it was super moist, but not raw tasting. You couldn’t even tell it was gluten free. I was so excited that I had to let you know! I’ll try again soon in case this was just a complete fluke, but I don’t think it was. Thank you so much!
You followed the recipe faithfully and had a great result, Becky. I promise that’s not a fluke! Thank you so much for taking the time to share your experience. It will for sure help others, and it certainly helps me!
We’ve made more loaves of this zucchini bread than I can count. Friends and family delight in the rich, moist treat. We like to toss a slice or two in the toaster oven to warm and gently crisp the bread, and eat it as it is, with peanut butter, ghee, or even extra chocolate chips. So yummy
So glad to hear that this is such a favorite, Sam! Thanks for sharing that.